Investigative Journalists: Who Are They and Where Do They Stand?

Personally, although I have written textbooks, directly taught at many universities and prestigious organizations at home and abroad, and have created thousands of investigative journalism works (and won A prizes and first prizes in many national competitions) over the past decades, but: honestly, I still do not have the confidence to say the above..

When the leaders and colleagues at Hai Duong Newspaper asked me with great enthusiasm (and probably also with concern) about the criteria for the emergence of a good investigative journalist, I said: The answer will probably lie in some large-scale, systematic research. Or from some good journalist.

I just speak from the perspective of a "real combatant" with quite private feelings for us to ponder.

Great support from the Editorial Board

First, a writer who is thoughtful, analyzes and makes sound recommendations for an issue (let us temporarily call him an investigative journalist) must have a great deal of support from his point of view, courage, and a not-so-small amount of travel expenses and royalties from the press agency. To bring out the “true face” of a story, one needs to be tough and committed. First of all, it takes time, effort, and money; secondly, it affects the interests, political lives, and financial status of many powerful people, which is sometimes really dangerous.

There was a case we did for 2 years in a row, just buying plane tickets and filling up the gas tank to drive the car over the mountain pass to get into character cost tens of millions of dong. That’s not to mention food, accommodation, parties, and “deposits” to cleverly trade goods (sometimes very illegal goods). And playing the role of a tycoon trading precious ores, tigers for making glue, precious wood by weight… looking for big business, you can’t eat out with “shark partners”.

The result of the series of articles on the largest ancient ironwood forest destruction case in Vietnam’s history (A Prize, National Press Award for fighting corruption and negativity) was 64 years in prison for the related subjects, many forest rangers and forest rangers’ managers were arrested. Just how much of a disturbance was it?

The series of articles won the National Press Award and the National Press Award for fighting corruption and negativity about the tragedy of transporting contraband goods via postal trucks in Vietnam. From the information we reported, by 2024, 35 subjects had been arrested and brought to trial, including the Chief Inspector of Lai Chau Province, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Sin Ho District... Therefore, when writing the series of articles, we had to report to the Editorial Board, to the Colonel, Deputy Director - Head of the Investigation Police Agency of Lai Chau Police about their spreading information and threatening to take revenge on journalists investigating this case, no one seemed surprised. Costly, touching and pressured from many sides, let me ask: If the Editorial Board of the newspaper was not brave, could the series of articles have lasted for more than 10 editions and competed for awards? Or...?

Don't be afraid of hardship, suffering or blame circumstances.

Second, it is about the desire to devote themselves to the profession of investigative journalists. They should consider journalism as a career, that is, having a predestined relationship with words, wanting to contribute to the power of words to raise awareness, promote positive behavior, for a better community. Sometimes it is a matter of making a statement, establishing a name in the profession (not a desire for fame). If that person is just a person who "takes an umbrella to work in the morning and takes it home in the evening", just to fulfill the duties of a salaried civil servant; then it is very easy for them to blame the mechanism, the management of the editorial office, the busyness of doing news or taking care of children, so that the work can be done haphazardly. Each tree has its own flowers, each family has its own situation, that's right. But, the spirit is: don't complain about difficulties. Don't blame your circumstances or blame your circumstances: you can only do it if you really want to do it. And even if that press agency doesn't meet your aspirations (that shirt doesn't fit or is too tight for you), you can always ask to work in a more suitable place.

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Every new and transparent newsroom always has two doors open: one to welcome new people, and one to reluctantly say goodbye to those who are no longer suitable.

People often talk about the many qualities of a successful investigative journalist. He/she needs to be dynamic enough to have an open mind, to find out the nature of the problem he/she is aiming at. What is its history, what is its deep nature, what have the leading experts and those directly involved in it said and are saying? From a legal perspective, from a management and human perspective, what are the international experiences and regulations on this issue? To solve the problem, what do people and managers need to do?

Furthermore, how did the journalist collect data and make recommendations to handle those issues, please let readers and listeners know the results of the case - with measurement and verification. The ability to connect data, the ability to persuade authorities to intervene in a "powerful" way requires a combination of many abilities and high social responsibility of the writer.

In many cases, we took on the role and brought the documents to the commune, district, and provincial agencies, international organizations, National Assembly delegates, and more: the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers issued written instructions for handling. Many articles published in electronic newspapers, we printed out, printed color copies and gave them to experts and officials to read and ask for their opinions. After that, national and international seminars on the issues raised by journalists were organized, and Vietnamese laws in that field were even adjusted accordingly. In all investigative journalism competitions, the Jury always set criteria: how widespread and how the work's social impact is (in addition to the factors of finding something new, analyzing something new, and good artistic expression) - as analyzed above.

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In other words, in addition to the role of reflecting, analyzing, finding and recommending solutions to problems, journalists also have the function of monitoring, criticizing, and recommending solutions and policies.

The story of words and beyond words

Besides the “blood” to clarify many issues with their “lifetime” journalistic works, the investigative journalists I know also have the ability to move people’s hearts with language. Words make writers, and the same goes for journalists. Having a unique writing style, convincing sentences, and the ability to express themselves in the hearts of the press public is an innate talent of the creator. And in the whirlwind of new media: readers and listeners also expect from writers (journalists in general) the ability to combine the skills of writing, recording, taking photos, filming, appearing on screen, interviewing and leading the scene, and then integrating the above forms into timely works.

The era of audiovisual culture, the era of reading culture with many demands is quite different from the past, the era of social networks, the internet and traditional press support each other skillfully. Besides the above factors, there is also the ability of "persuasion" of writers. They call for teamwork, they convince partners in projects. And they lobby with experts, intellectuals, politicians, investigative agencies at all levels to join in to handle the issues that journalists are about to or have raised.

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A step forward in the case that a journalist (group of journalists, press agency) reports on, the contribution of that case to society, is also a step forward, the class of that journalistic work, of that journalist himself in the hearts of the press public and the whole community.

Many journalists are also speakers and policy advocates. Their activities outside of writing, if successful, will be the basis for the miraculous progress of the work that the journalist is striving towards. Because the most important and noble measure of a journalist's character is how they and their work have done good things for the community.

Activities outside the writing page of a journalist

Another surprising factor, from the images of investigative journalists at home and abroad that I have experienced: the ability to convince others through their writing style, narration (general interaction) and even their activities outside of writing.

Some journalistic investigators in America, Australia, Africa… that I met, discussed and interacted with, they all had the “blood” of a detective. Some journalists liked Sherlock Holmes, some were fascinated by the perfect spy X6 - General of Intelligence Pham Xuan An. They wanted to challenge their own limits to find some truth. They were stimulated by difficult problems and adventures. They wanted to prove their professional expertise through great passion.

An investigative environmental journalist, author of “Killing for Profit” met me in South Africa, gave me his book and the stories he told, the book he wrote: showed him in the forest day after day, from country to country, taking helicopters, sitting near hunters’ machine guns. He traveled all over Vietnam, Thailand, then Africa, to follow that criminal network and interact closely with the crime-solving agency. His book has photo sets of subjects shot dead in front of him, in their own homes. A female journalist of Indian origin, educated in England, working as a journalist in the US (for world-famous TV channels Discovery, National Geographic) and many other Western colleagues I met, they worked alone, hired me (Do Doan Hoang) to help when they came to Vietnam, they used modern technology and international working skills to find out the nature of many environmental and natural problems, transnational smuggling networks. They even made a film about something very familiar to Vietnamese people: eating dog meat; but after it aired, it became famous and VTV asked for the copyright to rebroadcast it.

Journalist Do Doan Hoang was born in 1976 in Hanoi, has nearly 30 years of journalism experience, has won the National Press Award 6 times and many other high awards in journalism. Journalist Do Doan Hoang's investigative reports leave an impression on readers because they are full of fighting spirit, expose many negative issues in life, and have profound humanistic values.